Wireless networking is rapidly becoming pervasive in the word economy. A variety of devices are now manufactured and bundled with wireless communication capabilities. Furthermore, governments and businesses are making wireless receivers and transmitters (hotspots) available in a variety of geographical locations, so that wireless-enabled devices can gain access to the Internet or other network services.
However, even though hotspots are increasingly being made available, some users still find it difficult to obtain a wireless connection to the Internet. This is so, because a user may only have a single account with a single Internet Service Provider (ISP) and the various hotspots that the user may connect through are often not associated with the user's desired ISP. Consequently, the user finds that he/she may need to actively maintain a variety of user identifications and accounts with a variety of ISPs or hotspots. This is inconvenient and cumbersome and does not promote seamless wireless connectivity for the users.
Typically, a particular hotspot is serviced by its own ISP, such that the particular hotspot connects through its ISP to the Internet. Moreover, the hotspot is often not configured to offer an option to a user to access a different ISP, which the user may desire. Further, different ISPs are often not configured to interface with one another; such that a hotspot is not capable of requesting from its ISP that a user authentication be passed through to the user's native ISP.
The lack of internetworking capabilities between ISPs primarily exists because of the inability to track and bill for pass through connections that may occur when one ISP interfaces with another ISP. Security and performance concerns have also prevented internetworking from being more completely deployed.